Bedtime Story
by KateToast
Summary: A father tells his son a bedtime story.


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Phil of the Future. I wish I did, though.

**A/N**: Random fluff.

**XXX**

"Tell me the story, Daddy," a little boy demanded as his father tucked him into his bed one night.

"Which one?" the father asked with an amused grin, settling down onto the small chair beside the bed.

The child sighed with exasperation. "Dad! _You_ know the one!" At the adult's clueless expression, the boy got even more worked up. "The one about the boy who came from the future!"

"Oh!" the man exclaimed, as if it was finally dawning on him. He eyed his son. "But you've heard it a million times. Why don't we read one of the bedtime stories you have on your bookshelf?"

"'Cause my favorite is the one you tell, an' that isn't in a book!"

"Alright, if you're sure…," the man said cautiously, and at the boy's excited nod, he shrugged. "Okay. Well, once upon a time… hm… maybe you can help me start it? You can probably tell it better than me, by now."

The boy's face lit up and he squished farther back into his pillows. "Once upon a time," he began very seriously for a kid of five, "there was a boy from the future whose family went on a vacation in their time machine."

"Right," his father nodded, smiling gently and smoothing down his son's hair, "There was a boy from the future. His family decided to take a vacation and travel to different years in their rented time machine."

"But it stopped working," the boy interjected eagerly.

"That it did," the man agreed. "They took a pit stop in the year 2004 and their time machine broke down, stranding them many years from their original time."

"So they decided to live there."

The man nodded. "They bought a house and soon the boy and his younger sister started going to school. But it was very hard for the family, because they had to keep their secret to themselves. No one else could find out about them, or else they'd be carted away by the government and tested like aliens."

"But someone did find out." The boy stifled a yawn, staring with rapt attention at his father.

"The boy met a girl on his first day at school," the man continued, his smile softening.

"There's _always_ a girl in _every_ story," the child pointed out tiredly.

"At first the girl didn't pay much attention to the boy. She and everyone else thought he was weird. But then she realized she needed help in algebra, and the boy agreed to tutor her. The only problem was that the girl was embarrassed to be seen with him, so they met at a restaurant where no one really went, and they had a good time."

"But then her friends showed up an' the boy was hurt that the girl didn't wanna be seen with him so he left," the son added.

"Right, so the by the next day the girl felt so badly that she sat with the boy at lunch, and after that, they became friends."

"Best friends."

"Yup, best friends. But as time went on, the boy was finding it more and more difficult to keep his secret from her, so finally he decided to tell her. And when he did, she promised not to ever speak a word of it to anyone else. After that, the girl and boy not only became even closer, but she was now the only other person outside of the family who knew their secret."

"An' they got into lots of adventures." The son pulled the covers up over himself a little more, his eyes drooping.

"They did all sorts of stuff, and used many of the boy's future gadgets. He had something that flew called a skyak that he and the girl used often to travel around the world, and he had a new-ager that could make people older or younger than they actually were, and he had a Wizard, that did practically everything: it was an alarm clock, a telephone, a radio; it could change a person's appearance, or their voice; and it could make nearly anything you wanted materialize right there in front of you."

"Daddy, isn't there already a thing like the Wizard now?"

"Yes, it's similar… but it doesn't do as much as the Wizard does."

"I wish I had a Wizard. I hope they make one soon."

The father didn't say anything to that, and after a pause, was prompted by the boy clearing his throat to keep going. "So the boy and the girl got in and out of trouble all the time for a while, but then one day, two years after the boy and his family had gotten stuck in 2004, his dad finally fixed the time machine, which meant they were going home. But it was different for all of them, because this new time had become their home. No one really wanted to leave. But they had to, because 2006 wasn't where they belonged."

The five-year-old yawned once more, blinking sleepily. "But the boy and the girl…," he said faintly.

"But the boy and the girl's relationship had developed to something more than friendship, and just as it was time for the boy to leave, they both confessed their feelings for the other. On the school's news station, with every student watching. But the boy had no choice, and he had to leave the girl and all of his friends to go back to his own time. So he left without saying goodbye. But then the time machine backfired, and they returned just a few minutes before they had left. The boy decided to see the girl once more, and, in front of the school again, shared their first kiss."

"He still had to leave…" The little boy was falling asleep, and though his father didn't need to finish the story, he felt compelled to, even if it was just for himself.

"The family was still going to return home, and the second time, their machine worked. They were on their way back to the future, leaving everyone behind, including the boy's best friend. And just as they were nearing their own time, they realized…"

"They forgot their caveman…"

"So they had to turn around and go back and get him."

The man stood from the chair slowly, his limbs a bit sore from sitting on the tiny seat for so long. "Goodnight," he said, kissing his son's forehead and then going towards the door, flicking the light off so the room was black.

"Dad?" came a little voice.

"Yes?"

"Why do you always stop there? How does it end?"

The man paused, his silhouette completely still in the doorway. "That's something you have to decide on for yourself."

"I think they went back to get their caveman an' stayed."

"Maybe," the father shrugged nonchalantly.

"One more question?" the inquisitive boy asked.

"Yes?"

"How do you know that bedtime story so well?"

The man smiled secretively to himself, though his son couldn't see the look on his face. "My father told me the same story when I was your age," he replied honestly, though it wasn't the whole truth. But that could wait for another day, when the child was older. "Now get to sleep, Chris, because tomorrow we're going to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Pickford."

"Okay. Goodnight, Dad."

"Goodnight, Chris."

**XXX**

_End._


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